


Drew a Blank

by Sariau



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast), The Adventure Zone: Balance (Podcast)
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, He gets over it, M/M, Short One Shot, Taako kinda dies?, Time Travel, don't go licking things if you don't know what it is
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-04
Updated: 2018-11-04
Packaged: 2019-08-17 10:03:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16514246
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sariau/pseuds/Sariau
Summary: Being left behind is the worst thing anyone can experience. Taako doesn’t know how or why this knowledge hits him so hard.





	Drew a Blank

**Author's Note:**

> I honestly meant for the first two bits to fall into the same universe as [A Type of Interlude](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11564808) but then I had the thought of "What if 'Backwards' doesn't mean regressing or even killing one's self? What if it meant time travel?" 
> 
> So I talked with [Blue](blue-mood-blue.tumblr.com), and she said go for it! Many thanks, Blue!!! I did not have this written a couple hours ago, so hopefully you'll like it.

* * *

  **∞**

* * *

Taako doesn't sleep very much. He gets his minimum required beauty meditation, and a supersize coffee as black as his soul.

He’s gotten bitched at enough to know not to return back to his shared room with Magnus and Merle until well after the sun has risen. So he just wanders the halls and explores all the unlocked doors he comes across. (And a few that aren’t thanks to his Hole Thrower.)

He’s already aware of a few… interpersonal relationships going on, on the fake moon. But he doesn’t really need to _see_ it.

Eugh, now he’s going to need to stop by Fantasy Costco to see if there’s any forgetfulness potions in stock.

* * *

Taako finds himself in a different hallway with no recollection of how he got there. Stopping, he checks himself over to find his money pouch a few gold pieces lighter. He doesn’t know why he’s out and about aside from waking his roommates when he hears a sniffle. It’s quiet, but Taako knows his business when it comes to his hearing.

Another noise that sounds like a choked back sob leads him down the hallway he wasn’t facing.

He recognizes where he is just a little before he opens the swinging doors to the cafeteria. It’s one of the side entrances to the attached kitchens, but he can id that ugly linoleum for the rest of his life. He has trauma of terrible and mass-produced food associated with that flooring.

Then he’s inside, and Taako finds Angus sitting on a low stool, eating something with a familiarly shiny utensil.

Ah fucknuggets. This.

He gets closer, nabbing a rag and touching it to the leaking tap to get it a bit damp. “Hey Ango.” He says, getting comfortable on the floor next to the kid.

Angus doesn’t jump, and doesn’t protest when Taako uses the rag to clean the kid’s face. Aiming first for the tear tracks, then wiping away the red sauce at the corners of his mouth.

“I miss him.” Angus says a while after Taako is done, breaking the silence between them.

“Yeah.” Taako sighs, pushing his hand through his hair, and getting it stuck there in the tangles. He tries to be subtle at unknotting the mess. He’s probably not very successful.

“Why did he leave?” Taako feels like he’s been asked a similar question a long time ago. The hint of the memory feels like heartache and ash on his tongue. And this vulnerable question gets Taako to really look at Angus McDonald.

Alone on the moonbase full of adults. No mention of guardians aside from his dead Grandpa. No one to miss the absence of this boy. This child.

Taako moves the mug of lasagna from Angus’s hand to the floor, replacing it with his own grip.

“That’s how it is, sometimes.” Taako keeps his eyes on the sealed door to the chill room. He can feel Angus watching him, can feel the small hand in his holding tight. “Sometimes, no matter how much you love them, it’s not enough, and they’ll leave you behind.” He takes a deep breath, letting it out in a tired sigh. “I’d like to think the important part is what you do next. Do you stop? Go forward? Backwards?”

“Backwards?” Angus asks in confusion.

Taako nods. “Backwards.” And he leaves it at that.

* * *

  **n**

* * *

Taako tries his hardest not to show just how terrified he is. He watches his sister and Barry make their way to the top of the hill. He is terrified, and something inside him is at war to get to the top of that hill before them and destroy all their hard work.

Stop them from becoming liches.

But he doesn’t. He trusts them. He trusts that they know what they’re doing. He watches from the foot of the hill as the opposite of light begins to shine.

He watches two silhouettes drop.

He watches two red robed figures rise as light returns to the world.

He falls to his knees with his hands over his ears at the horrible shrieking that settles into his heart like a knife.

He watches two liches, insane with power and agony, and no longer Lup and Barry, fly away. The pattern as they orbit each other in madness and pain like a double helix.

He gets up after who knows how long, certainly long after the sound of their destruction has faded away to nothing. Taako memorizes the pattern of the rune used, the materials spread out in cardinal directions, and burns it to cinders.

Taako stands, left behind and so very, very lost.

He spends quite a long time trying to learn how this could have gone awry.

Years.

Decades.

It is harder to protect the light of creation from the Hunger when they’re down two members.

Everything is harder without Lup.

He tried a few times to bring her back- Barry too. But nothing worked.

He knows, now, what went wrong. He knows the correct ritual now. But that doesn’t help fix the damage done.

Taako doesn’t give up. He cares for everyone on the crew, but Lup will always be his top priority.

And one year, together with Barry, she destroys the ship down to the screws at the beginning of cycle one hundred thirteen. The Starblaster can’t be mended in time. They’ve lost.

The Hunger descends on them, and all they can do is fight back until they fall.

Taako remembers being separated from the rest of the crew when the Hunger comes raining down. Remembers trying one last time to find his sister after being sent away from the rest of the crew. The same argument of how long Taako should try to save them splitting them apart.

Taako is alone when creatures of Hunger cut him down.

* * *

Taako’s steps hitch as he walks past Barry’s room on the Starblaster. He ducks in to see Barry sitting at his desk, a pen in his hand but motionless. Like the human is thinking of what to write next.

“Taako? Did you need something?” Barry smiles at him in a way he hasn’t seen in years.

Decades.

And he can feel time progressing in his mind. Every memory is falling out like an hourglass cut in two.

He jolts a little when a hand presses against his forehead. “You’re not running a fever, but let’s not risk it. You sit here, and I’ll get Merle. At least he’s stopped using Parley on the Hunger.”

Taako blankly watches Barry leave with a concerned glance over his shoulder. Then he looks down at the desk he is seated at. At the book laying open to the thrice damned page. Barry’s necromancy notes. Incomplete.

They always were incomplete, weren’t they?

Taako grabs the pen, and draws the correction that has been burning like a coal in his mind for the last years.

Decades.

“Fuck, I hope this isn’t a dream or something.” He mutters to himself, putting down the pen when he’s done. It’s only a little later that the last of his memories tumble away, and Taako doesn’t know why he’s sitting at Barry’s desk.

Then he hears Lup's raging charge from the other end of the ship, and he doesn’t have to question for much longer alone.

* * *

**1**

* * *

Taako watches the ship Lup is on sail away into the strange sky. It is black, and yet it looks so heavy with color that it is dripping down to the ground below.

He pauses at that thought, and peers closer.

Because that is exactly what is happening. He has no way of explaining it. Only that it started when the Starblaster was in flight.

One of those drops from the black sky above stretches down into a column nearby, and creatures with only an outline step out.

And then start attacking people.

Taako tries his best fighting back, directing people to safety as he joins other fighters. He is one of the few magic casters in the area with offensive capability, and eventually, he runs out of spell slots. So he pulls out his sword, and joins the fray.

Lup is gone. He hopes she is safe. He hopes he can buy enough time for someone to think of a way to-

Taako dies with hope on his mind. He dies with a group of mostly strangers against something none of them were ready for.

At least he didn’t die completely alone.

* * *

Taako’s breath hitches, and almost bites his tongue off when he is tackled to the ground by at least five refrigerators. They’ve got him pinned down so well that he can’t fight back.

They keep him pinned long enough for him to calm down. Long enough to hear the very familiar sound of Lup breathlessly laughing nearby.

Actually, he can remember something like this happening before. Lup bet that he couldn’t lick the Light of Creation. She bet her Marcus Hanuy Classic High Top Kreuzbergs. He’d been trying to steal them from her since they’d been released last fall.

So he licked the damn thing. It didn’t really taste like anything, though it did give his tongue a tingly feeling. Then he’d been piled on as a security risk. Taako still walked away the next day in his new shoes with a black eye and a proud grin. Security was beefed up around the Light of Creation after that, and he didn’t see it again.

Except… he’s pretty sure it’s right over there. That he’s back to that exact situation.

And he can feel something like a timer counting down as thoughts of the future start fading away.

Well, if he gets a chance- “Ow!”

Yep. There’s that black eye.

Lup vouches for him, and he’s taken to the clinic. The medic there wants him to stay the night for observation, and Taako wheedles Lup into bringing dinner and his prize for licking the Light of Creation.

The medic doesn’t let him have the food, like last time. That’s what happened, right?

And when the job offer comes down from on high for a position on the yet to be named inter-planar ship, Taako raises a stink.

Like hell he’s going to be left behind again.

...

_Again?_

* * *

  **∞**

* * *

Taako doesn’t know why he isn’t forgetting this time. There is no clock counting down. In fact, he can even remember the previous times he’s randomly jumped back.

It was… it was quite a few times. He should probably never mention this to Kravitz. He was already so upset about the extra deaths they all got in Refuge.

Taako leads Angus back to his tiny single room. He’s mostly mulling over the more recent jumps.

He had been in a caravan, and they were competing to make something useful. Only, the chick ended up destroying the lead caravan and the supplies inside. Then he jumped back to a duel with the chick and almost got blasted himself. He nagged her about that until she put power restrictions on the damn thing.

Actually, most of his jumps ended up happening because of that stupid caravan. So why didn’t this one? He’d been down in a place called Wonderland when the jump happened. Oh yeah. He was crushed to death by an _actual_ refrigerator this time.

Beats getting tackled when he’d accidentally entered a field for a rather violent game.

That first time is rather memorable, even if it is his first time remembering all of it.

“Sir?” Taako hums, looking down at the boy detective. Oh, they’re at his door. Taako hadn’t even noticed. “I’m going to go forward. Goodnight.” And the kid slides through the opening of his door and closes it with a quiet click before he can respond.

“Yeah.” He says to the hallway instead. “Me too.”

* * *

When Taako drinks the baby voidfish ichor, it isn’t as much as an impact as Barry is implying when he convinces Lucretia to tell them their story. The feeling is only a little worse than when he jumps back, comparatively speaking. It’s more like missing puzzle pieces snapping into place, and Taako can finally see the whole picture.

Which means he knows what happens if Lucretia manages to get her spell off.

Well, if anyone is good a poking bubbles, it would have to be Taako.

But first-

Lucretia is barely finished telling them of the Legato Conservatory when Taako brings his Umbrastaff over his knee, breaking it in two.

Lup emerges in a plume of smoke with fire in her eyes, the pyromaniac.

If she ever sneaks out without telling him again, he’s going to murder his twin.

He says as much, before she can rib him for boning Kravitz.

Fuckin’ “Back soon.” his ass.

**Author's Note:**

> Does anybody get how the jumping happens? Or at least what triggers it? I mean, not the death part. The part that chooses when he jumps back to? I'll be happy to hear what you think, and I've got a tumblr! Come bug me over [there](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/sariau-write)!


End file.
